Authors: Mark Darby, Neil Higson and Paul Quinlan
Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing
Format: Hardback
Pages: 128
In 1987 the operations of the once monolithic CIE was split between Irish Railways - Iarnrod Eireann - and two bus companies. It was only after the creation of IR that the railways of Ireland underwent major modernisation. Prior to that date, investment in the railway infrastructure in the Republic had been limited with the result that the lines were still controlled by aged semaphore signalling installations, there were long and rambling freight-only branches as well as a variety of life-expired locomotives and rolling stock.
With the considerable investment that Ireland received as part of the rise of the Celtic Tiger economy much of this historic infrastructure has been replaced or is under threat. This new book is a large format all-colour album featuring some of the best quality of railway photography to provide a graphic portrait of the evolution of Ireland's railways from 1980 onwards. It covers the final years of the CIE regime before examining the changes that have occurred over the past 30 years.